Philip Connors was born in Iowa, raised on a farm in Minnesota, educated at the University of Montana and disillusioned by a stint of corporate journalism in New York. He is the author of two previous books, "Fire Season" and "All the Wrong Places....

Stephen J. Pyne is an emeritus professor at Arizona State University. He is the author of more than 30 books, including "Style and Story," "The Ice," "How the Canyon Became Grand" and "Voyager: Exploration, Space, and the Third Great Age of Discovery....